Sands Of Time
by OpenWings
Summary: Ever trickling time can hurt or heal, bring two people closer than the press of waves on the shore or take them farther apart than the sky and the sand. About Vivi and Kohza and how they found their horizon, the place where the sky and sand finally meet
1. Friends

_**Hi everyone! My muse just came in and bee-lined towards Vivi and Kohza! And since there is such a drought of lovin' for these two I figured I might as well write some myself. XD **_

_**For those of you who follow 'Abandon', don't worry. I haven't forgotten about updating that. This has just been niggling in one corner of my mind ever since I watched the Alabasta arc and WHOA was that long ago! I will be updating Abandon as soon as I figure out what Nanao ought to say… Tee hee.**_

_**Anyway, the first few snippets are rated G but the last one will most probably be a nice yellow fruit, coz I'm just so perverted. Everything just has to be about smex for you doesn't it Tsubasa?**_

_**Anyway, I'm sure you didn't click on this link to read my epically long author's notes so read and review please. Enjoy :D**_

"_I can only do my best with the power I have." _

The words rang in his ears. This was the king whose tales of bravery and valor he had grown up with? This was his hero? The man his father, oh shit, his whole clan would give their lives for without batting an eyelash? He didn't even pause to think before…

"_But my father said you can do anything!_

His back and neck ached and his forehead was tender where his father had forced his head to meet the floor over and over again. But what hurt the most was the helplessness. He was just a kid; he couldn't make a difference for the clan. No matter what he did no one would take him seriously. Even his father didn't understand him. If the King didn't help them then who _would_? Memories of the village where he grew up stormed into his eyes with the tears; the village that no longer existed. He ran without knowing where he was going.

Her voice seemed to come out of nowhere.

"What's with you, crybaby?"

He screeched to a halt, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. No one called Kohza, the leader of the Suna Suna clan a crybaby. The girl who had spoken was leisurely leaning against the wall, inspecting him with languid disdain. It made his blood boil that she had just insulted him so casually. He grabbed at the first insult that shot through his head.

"What the hell do you want, Shorty?"

She seemed to bristle at that but he couldn't be sure. His body instinctively braced itself for a fight before his mind caught up. Did he even care if she hit him? She was a GIRL after all, she probably knew as much about fighting as he knew about makeup and pretty shoes. He relaxed, a smug grin spreading over his face.

What could a shorty with a cute little birdie for a sidekick possibly do to Kohza, leader of the Suna Suna?

"Shorty?" she repeated, moving away from the wall, her hands folded calmly behind her back as she sidled forward.

The next thing he knew her foot was in his face and her teeth in his arm and the 'cute little birdie' was pecking ferociously at his head. It didn't matter that he won in the end. What mattered was she shattered any preconceived notions he might have had of her. The moment she landed a punch on his face, she was his friend. No, she was more than that; she was his equal.

He's learned never to underestimate her since.

_**A/N again…. Like it? Hate it? Detest it to the extent you mentally curse me to an existence as a zombie on Thriller Bark? Let me know.**_


	2. Aligning

_**A/N: Ok, here's the second installment of Sands of Time. This time it's from Vivi's Point of view. Read and review, ne? **_

Vivi remembers the day of Kohza's departure, remembers it clear as day. It was the day her life began to form towards a goal. She remembers playing in the palace grounds with the gang the day before. They had sworn to have as much fun as possible that day and as far as she remembers it had been great fun. But the details are lost now, leaving behind only the warm swell of camaraderie and childhood memories.

The next morning however remains focused. She remembers loading luggage into the carts with Leader, the heady smell of horses and buffaloes, the strength of the sun on her exposed skin. She remembers the taste of the muffin she had snuck out of the box she had brought to Obaa-san so that they would have a snack on the way, remembers the calm happiness of a good deed done, remembers the glow on Kohza's face when he realized he could finally do something for the country he loved so very much, that he was actually on the way to achieving his dream.

What she does not remember, however, is any feeling of sadness or loss at his departure. There was none. She knew that he was going to a place where he would be truly happy, doing what he loved for the country that was as much a part of him as it was a part of her.

"Later, Vivi. You become a great princess!"

The moment Kohza had turned around and said those words, she knew she would not rest till she was the best princess she could be, so that when the time came for her to take the throne Kohza would be proud of her.

Vivi hadn't _**loved**_ Alabasta until Kohza. She had liked it enough, looked upon it as a favorite playground, a place she could explore to her hearts content, a world outside the palace walls that was huge and beautiful and full of adventure and excitement. She knew its history and its geography from her lessons. She knew the revenues generated from each oasis, knew the trade routes that passes through its boundaries, knew its customs and the art of manipulating its language till she could have recited everything about it in her sleep.

But it wasn't until Kohza told her about the _real_ Alabasta, the one he knew so very well, with that brightness in his eyes and that joy on his face, that she fell in love with it. It wasn't until her friends snuck her out of the palace, until she started eating her lunches and dinners with Kohza and Toto-ojisan and Obasan, until her father and Igaram got caught tailing her and took her and 'her clan' to one of the roadside restaurants as a penalty, until she became one of Alabasta's people instead of being just its princess. It wasn't until that, that Alabasta became a part of her heart, and she became a part of Alabasta.

It wasn't until him.


	3. On Conversations

"_Do I love you because you are beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" Cinderella_

Vivi was rather perplexed.

"Kohza?"

Confused silence.

"_**Kohza**_?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"I don't know… That's why I asked, you know…"

"Try straining that little piece of chewed up gum you call a brain and figure it out."

"Kohza…"

"What?"

"Could you please stop acting like an ass and tell me already?"

"Shut up woman! You're destroying my concentration!"

Angry silence.

"Kohza! **Why** must you _concentrate_ so close to my face?"

"Vivi?"

"Yes?"

"Why must you interrogate at such a crucial time?"

"Well, you're confusing me. And you _know_ I don't like that. Can't you just tell me what you're doing?"

"No. Just sit still."

Anxious silence.

"Do I have something on my face?"

"For the love of God! Can't a guy even kiss you without signing a goddamn treaty?"

Stunned silence.

"Well, **now** you choose to shut up already!"

"Oh, so that's what you were trying to do…"

"Argh, slow as always. What's going to become of this country with you as Queen I don't know."

Contemplative silence.

"Kohza?"

"What, Vivi?"

Uncomfortable silence.

"Do I have something on my face?"

"No, you don't."

"Could you bother to turn around and look at my face and give me an answer I can actually believe?"

"Of all the stupid… No, Vivi you don't have anything on y—"

He was cut off by her lips against his. Her lips were the softest thing he'd ever felt, even through the glare of the sun in his eyes and the fact that she was pressing so hard her teeth were digging into his upper lip. When she began to pull away, he didn't know what else to do, so he just pulled her right back.

"Kohz—"

The best kind of silence.


	4. Death of Hope

Kohza's heart was pounding, drumming in his ears so loudly he felt it reverberate off the smooth pillars to his sides. The great audience hall of the palace was cool, completely removed from the sweltering oven of the open desert. A different world altogether.

Kohza could feel the heat in his body slowly seep out of him where his knees touched the marble floor, feel goose bumps rise on the back of his neck and his toes tingle.

Only one thought raced through his mind on repeat: The King will fix it, he'll fix everything.

And the gods help him he had never had so much conviction in anything else than he did now in that one man. That undying conviction quelled the storm in his heart, calmed the terror.

The King strode in, purposeful and quick, with none of the pomp that his position demanded. Kohza remembers how much he used to admire the King's walk, as though each firm, brisk step was taking him ever closer to some breathtaking goal that only he could see. How many times had he secretly practiced walking like that and never gotten it right?

Chaka and Pell trailed behind, their eyes darting in every possible direction, subconsciously scanning for any threats. Their eyes fell on Kohza and immediately became grim, as though they knew what he was going to say, knew the absurdity of it, the recklessness behind it.

He knelt there before the throne as the King took his seat and formally began the audience, knelt to display the faith he had in the man before him.

"Kohza, I know what brings you to my door. I know it and I understand it, but I wish to hear it from you," the King's voice seemed to boom and fill the whole room like thunder.

Kohza felt his heart sinking into his stomach as dread rose in him like a tide. He chose his next words as carefully as he could.

"I am here to ask you to help me," he licked his dry lips and swallowed hard, didn't meet Cobra's eyes.

"I shall do anything for you that is in my power and within reason, my son."

"Then I ask you to help me save your people."

His knees were numb now, and sharp pains were shooting up his shins but he couldn't give a damn if he tried. He took a deep breath and met Cobra's unfaltering gaze. The King did not seem fatherly and amused at his words as he would have been in any other situation, and Kohza found himself being grateful for the King's solemnity

"Kohza, I am proud of the man you have become. You are strong in mind and body, intelligent and you love this country as much as I do. I would trust you with my life without a seconds delay. So I hope that what you will say next will show all of those qualities that I find so remarkable in you."

He knew the reaction his request, no, his _demand_ would have. Knew it painfully. But he had no choice.

The world seemed to stand still, each moment dragging by at its cruel leisure, his heartbeat fluidly, deafeningly pulsing…

He took a deep breath that somehow didn't make its way into his lungs.

And said it.


	5. Innocence Lost

It was a beautiful night, the kind that made one almost reverent for its loveliness. The moon was huge, white and full. The translucent milky beams that fluttered down from it seemed to bleach the sands white, reflected off it like diamonds.

.

.

All was still, all was silent. Shadows seemed to whisper in and out of being, melding and flowing away from the moonlight almost playfully. Reflected against the backwash of black and white, Vivi sat on a windowsill in her room.

.

.

It was so peaceful outside, so quiet, as though everything was right again. No, as if nothing had been wrong in the first place. Maybe this was Alabasta's idea of a going away present, she thought, making everything of old once again, for one night.

.

.

.

Just for her.

.

.

.

On the last night she could have in her _home_ for the foreseeable future.

.

.

.

She sighed at her own inanity, and leaned her head back against the stone wall behind her, loath to close her eyes and block out the precious few moments she had with everything she loved.

.

.

.

She was packed already, light and practically. A couple of sets of durable clothing, maps and travel information she had dug up, the painfully thin leather-bound notebook of all the information she had gathered on Baroque Works, all the eternal poses she could find. Her peacock slashers a familiar weight against her skin. Pictures of all the people she loved. A letter from 11-year-old Kohza that spoke exuberantly of his adventures in Yuba.

.

.

.

Her lifelines.

.

.

.

She stood carefully, perfectly balanced, her back straight and regal and made her way to her dresser. Drawing her heavy, silver-backed brush through her hair she fortified the many fibers of her resolve, each leading to a soul in the country spread out beneath her feet.

.

.

.

She remembers how she has always heard of this being her mother's tradition. Before anything important, she steeled herself, brought everything into focus in front of the mirror. How she looked at her reflection and renewed her own faith in herself.

.

.

.

So Vivi did the same, but it didn't help renew her faith, or quell the tides of fear inside her.

.

.

.

Every particle in her body seemed to be on edge, reaching out to something, trying its best to memorize everything. She sighed again.

.

.

.

In this moment she wanted many things. She wanted to run to her father's rooms and hug him, tell Igaram to stay in Alubarna-stay safe, curl up in her bed and hide from all the demons threatening to eat her alive.

.

.

.

She wanted to kiss Kohza goodbye. Feel his callused fingertips brush over her cheek. See the sunlight lose itself in his hair. One last time she wanted to _see_ him and commit everything to memory. His visage was like sand right now, details slipping away between her fingers the harder she tried to hold on to them.

.

.

.

But more than that, more than anything else, more than her own life, she wanted vengeance. Wanted it with a full-bodied _hunger_ that she couldn't ignore. She wanted to find the cause of Alabasta's torment, find that person and rip his limbs off his body with her own two hands. To obliterate the very person who had caused the suffering of her loved ones. To feel muscle and sinew tear deliciously in her hands. To finally feel peace at his agony.

.

.

.

To her surprise this didn't shame her in the least. The fact that she wanted to paint walls with a person's blood didn't sicken her. This bloodlust that brewed inside her with a gut-clenching, muscle-coiling tension that demanded release at any cost, it did nothing but strengthen her resolve.

.

.

.

She let it grow then, let herself bask in the glory of its strength.

.

.

.

She put down the silver-backed brush and rose, confident, reborn from the ashes of her weakness.

.

.

.

Delicate activities like loitering in front of mirrors were not for her anymore. She was a pirate now and she had an agenda, and she'd fulfill it if it was the last thing she did.

.

.

.

So when she finally left with Igaram, a while before dawn broke (as was proper for an escaping princess) she had no cracks in her assumed façade. No vulnerability in her resolve.

.

.

.

As they left, she never looked back.

.

.

.

It was a beautiful night.

.

.

.

But it was not for her.

Not anymore.

**A/N:**_**Hey! I hope you guys liked this chapter. As for the next chapter, it is going to move up to M. For language and other stuff. So kiddies, it's goodbye from here on out. **_

_**Leave some love! Review!**_

_**Biology**_


	6. TimeOut

It was dark and cool inside the storage tent; the thick, coarse cloth distilling the harsh sunlight till it resembled half-shadows that danced just beyond his line of sight. He reclined, relaxed and casual with one arm propping up his head, the other pulling his sunglasses off his sticky face.

It was unbearably hot today, the sun beating down mercilessly over a desert that sparked like red-hot metal. The army's water rationing was beginning to fall short of the soldiers needs; heatstroke and dehydration were devastatingly common, even to desert dwellers like them.

He sighed heavily, running his fingers through his straw colored hair, darker now with sweat, and recalled the look in that too-young boy's eyes that had come to ask for recruitment.

It had struck a chord deep inside him, disturbed him more than he'd ever let himself acknowledge. He remembered his own childhood, at that boy's age he had thought nothing of vengeance, or felt anything like the toxic anger that had bubbled underneath his skin, simmered in the boy's eyes. The roundness hadn't left the child's face yet, but his eyes had been hard, crazed.

Adult in the worst possible way.

It made his heart ache horribly.

"How did it come to this?" wasn't a question he could afford to ask himself. He did it anyway.

"I can hear your brain whizzing all the way over here. It's making my fucking head hurt, Kohza." Kebi's voice floated through the heat haze and shattered his shell. Kohza hadn't noticed his comrade and his friend standing outside the tent.

"Foul mouthed as ever and now caustic to boot, how you sleep at night I'll never know…" Kohza commented idly, rolling his shoulders in a halfhearted effort to relax.

"This is your time off, fool. Loosen up. Jack off. Do something. How you survive with all that angst bubbling inside you I'll never know…"

"Urgh, thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. I don't know why I have to take this time-out thing you've set up. I feel like I'm two again."

"Just shut up and be grateful I let you take a break."

Kohza sat up, unreasonably irritated.

"I have work to do, Kebi. And so do you. I've had enough."

Kebi's voice was deeper this time, concerned. It stopped Kohza in his tracks.

"Look, I see you working, worrying, stressing yourself to the limit out there everyday. There's only so much you can take. For now Kohza, I want you to think about something that makes you happy. Dream, fantasize, do something that'll take the weight off your shoulders. You're only human, after all, like the rest of us. Do it for me, like a favor."

Kohza smiled slightly. It had been a long time since someone looked out for him.

"Alright, fine. I'll do your petty daycare exercises. Feel honored." He conceded, and lay back on the sacks of grain. Kebi's grin was almost tangible through the burlap.

"Stuff some sand in it. You'll thank me some day." And he was gone.

Kohza found the small smile lingering on his face, slowly dissolving the tension in his muscles. He was a man of his word after all. No more anxiety inducing musings. He closed his eyes and chose his train of thought. It fell almost effortlessly on the track of a certain someone with sky blue silk for hair and eyes that reminded him of just-rained-on-earth.

He had tried to hate her for the longest time. Tried and failed so many times he gave up in the end and acknowledged his love for her to be something beyond his control. He hated her for abandoning her people, for abandoning him. But she was as much a part of him as his blood. She was indispensable.

And today, he'd think only of her.


End file.
